EVERY election year, political parties, whether large or small, use their platforms to tell the public of their visions for Trinidad and Tobago, their plans and their policies.
This year is no different with 17 political parties contesting the April 28 general election.
Immediately after Prime Minister Stuart Young announced a snap election on March 18, candidates for TT’s two major parties, the PNM and the UNC, along with several smaller parties, took to the podiums on the 40-day campaign trail.
Each party has spent this time making their best attempts to convince the population to endorse them as leaders of the nation.
In return, they promise the world: jobs, money, free education, water for all, alleviation of all the social ills in the nation, greater security, safety and every benefit that the mind could envision.
This election year some promise a new chapter, while some promise that if they win, you will win too.
These promises and plans are usually found in a party’s manifesto, a compilation of all the things TT can gain by putting the ‘X’ by their party’s symbol, come election day.
Many of these plans would be of interest to the business community, who are affected by crime, economic policy and external pressures from global and geopolitical shocks.
For citizens and the business community, these promises are the only indication of the plans that each political party has for TT’s future.
The PNM and the UNC have released their manifestos which gives the public the opportunity to see what the country would look like under each party’s leadership.
Parties such as the All People’s Party (APP) led by Kezel Jackson and the Trinidad Humanity Campaign (THC) have also published manifestos that list their visions and plans.
The UNC’s list of offerings include all areas concerning TT’s business community such as crime, energy, the non-energy sector and education.
With regard to crime, the UNC provided a 60-point plan which has a range of measures which will included public safety, community-based crime-fighting methods and legislation to tackle crime.
The first element of the UNC’s crime plan is to pass stand-your-ground laws, which allows people to use deadly force in self-defence, provided they are in a place where they have a right to be.
This means, if a person believes they are under threat, they are allowed to defend themselves without facing any possible charges.
The UNC also promised to modify the current legislation to make getting legal guns easier and allow for more people the right to bear arms.
Police and other arms of the protectives services may benefit from this plan as well as the UNC intends to provide guns to active officers while off-duty.
Along with this, the UNC plans to make legislative changes starting with a restructuring of the ministry of national security, the creation of a ministry of home affairs, a ministry of defence and a ministry of justice.
The UNC’s crime plan also includes schools taking a zero-tolerance approach to school violence, promising that any student found attacking another will be immediately removed and only allowed to return after completing what the manifesto described as “neurodiagnostic testing.”
Newsday understands the term includes tests such as CT scans, magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs) and positron emission tomography (PET) scans.
The UNC also promised to put police officers in every school, restructure social programmes that have become gang and criminal activity havens.
Crime fighting measures
The PNM also promised to build safer communities through public safety improvements, enhanced law enforcement policies, better accountability, community-based crime prevention and technology-driven national security systems.
Its manifesto promised to strengthen national security through enhanced inter-agency coordination via the National Operations Fusion Centre. It promised more investment in elite tactical units, technology and surveillance systems.
The PNM also promised to equip the police with the technology and tools to respond swiftly and effectively to organised crime, violent threats and national emergencies.
The manifesto also promised to modernise legislation to protect citizens and frontline officers, combat gun crime and increase accountability within law enforcement.
It said it will assist where possible to speed up case resolution and expand access to legal aid while modernising border control and immigration systems with biometric screening, improved maritime surveillance, and digital tracking to secure our borders and disrupt trafficking networks.
The PNM also plans to deepen investment in community safety through expanded community policing, neighbourhood watch programmes and violence prevention initiatives.
For the youth exposed to crime, the PNM’s manifesto included youth support, intervention and rehabilitation efforts which it hopes will break the cycle of crime. It also plans to establish safe education zones and community policing to reduce youth’s exposure to crime, increase safety and foster trust between citizens and law enforcement.
With regard to the economy, the PNM plans to focus on sustainable energy, infrastructure and climate resilience through increased investment in renewable energy, green jobs, sustainable industry, climate and infrastructure resilience and environmental stewardship.
It also plans to strengthen export capacity, expand foreign exchange earnings, and promote TT as a global hub for culture, energy, services and creativity.
The PNM said through strategic growth in agriculture, manufacturing, tourism, sport, technology and the creative industries; expanded infrastructure and digital innovation; support for SMEs, local content, and exports and workforce transformation to generate quality jobs, empower entrepreneurs, it hopes to ensure economic inclusion across all communities.
It also plans to establish a ministry of implementation and efficiency, which will ensure that the government delivers real results that people can see and feel. The PNM manifesto said the ministry would be at the centre of government delivery, taking the responsibility of monitoring, coordinating and accelerating the roll-out of national projects.
Food imports and agriculture
The UNC’s plan for the economy also includes efficiency, establishing a head of efficiency, optimisation and digitisation in every ministry who would identify inefficiencies and bottlenecks, re-work the workflows and ensure that digitisation is a priority in every ministry.
It also plans to make an investment in agriculture, reducing the food import bill by $2 billion, increasing the agriculture sector’s contribution to the GDP to five per cent and generating up to $1 billion in agricultural exports.
The UNC has also promised to fulfil all VSEP obligations for former Caroni (1975) Ltd workers that were not met, which involves delivering all agricultural and residential land, severance payments and pensions.
The UNC promised to modernise agriculture and focus on reviving strategic industries such as cocoa, rice and dairy.
Both the PNM and the UNC have expressed plans to diversify the economy, making promises to look at opportunities in the maritime sector.
The non-energy sector is also a focus for most political parties. The PNM said it plans to reduce input costs and strengthen competitiveness in technology, agro-processing and manufacturing sectors. The manifesto said it will improve the ease of doing business by modernising import and export procedures, reducing bureaucratic barriers, and digitalising trade documentation. It will also establish a single window platform for faster and more efficient trade approvals and logistics coordination.
To address the foreign exchange crunch for businesses, the PNM plans to provide export readiness training and access to platforms for SME expansion into regional and international markets.
It also planned to increase strategic international marketing initiatives and comprehensive brand development campaigns designed explicitly to highlight and promote TT’s unique products, services and cultural offerings globally. Opportunities such as public-private collaborations, business incubation and mentorship for businesses are also among the PNM’s manifesto plans.
The UNC’s online manifesto also had a section on its agenda on workers, but when Business Day checked, it was directed to its manifesto on education, in which it promised preparations for both students and parents to maximise their child’s education opportunities. This will include a re-evaluation of the Children’s Authority and Student’s Support Services, providing tablets and laptops for children, standardised parental training programmes that would be managed through a parental training management division in the Ministry of Education.
The PNM promised strategic youth employment and entrepreneurial pathways that will take youths from the education system to employment though internship, apprenticeship and business incubator opportunities in tech, tourism and energy.
One of the key features of this would be its national digital skills and entrepreneurship programme which will equip youths with essential digital and business skills for the modern economy.
Other parties focus on crime, economy
The PNM and UNC’s are not the only ones who have shared their plans in a manifesto.
The Patriotic Front led by Mickela Panday, the daughter of former UNC founder Basdeo Panday, revealed its short-term and long-term plans in a nine-point manifesto which include crime, the economy and energy. The party has 37 candidates and is contesting the general election for the first time.
On crime, the Patriotic Front plans to ensure timely and adequate funding for the defence force, unify national security operations, restore patrol capacity, re-establish the witness protection programme and introduce a national rehabilitation platform for incarcerated people.
On energy, Patriotic plans to provide a sustainable future through clean energy initiatives which include introducing a 50 per cent tax credit for residential solar installation, partnering with the private sector on national clean energy awareness campaigns and a national EV charging network for electric cars and attracting investment to establish a local lithium battery manufacturing hub.
For the rest of the economy it plans to accelerate the procurement process for small businesses, launch an inflation monitoring committee and a trade market intelligence unit and establish data-driven agro-industrial zones.
The Trinidad Humanity Campaign (THC) party, which has three candidates in the race, also expressed its plans in its manifesto.
It said with regard to crime its plans include establishing mobile patrol units at every major road intersection and at entrances to specific communities, amnesty periods for illicit firearms for food vouchers and stiffer penalties for white collar crime.
The THC’s plans for the economy include a further reduction of VAT to ten per cent, a reduction of corporate tax on SMEs and a boost to the manufacturing sector through tax reductions and other incentives for basic needs products.
It also has big plans for cannabis, which include working to prevent a monopoly or an oligarchy in the marijuana industry by offering vertical cannabis licences and government initiatives to provide genetics and seeds.
In March, National Transformation Alliance political leader Gary Griffith said his party would not present a manifesto. In a Newsday article, Griffith described manifestos as a document full of empty promises. He said there was usually no indication of expenditure, or how the party planned to gain income.
“We are putting a road map towards the transformation of TT,” he said in the article. “We are going to show how we intend to get income, how we intend to have expenditure and how we are going to account for each and every cent in this country.”
He promised accountability, transparency and to measure performance.
Still he has expressed his plans which include the implementation of a new and advanced E999 system which would act as a unified system for police, medical and fire emergencies.
The NTA also plans to reignite the community comfort patrols and establish a border protection unit.
